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Protein from wildlife (including fish) is crucial to food security, nutrition and health across the tropics. The harvest of duikers, antelopes, pigs, primates, rodents, birds, reptiles and fish provides invaluable benefits to local people both in terms of income and of improved nutritious diets. It also creates, often linked with commercialization, some very important health issues with the spread of several life-threatening diseases (Ebola, SARS).

Vulnerability of the resource to harvest varies, with some species sustaining populations in heavily hunted secondary habitats, while others require intact forests with minimal harvesting to maintain healthy populations. Global attention has been drawn to biodiversity loss through debates regarding bushmeat, the “empty forest” syndrome and their ecological importance.

However, information on the harvest and the trade remains fragmentary, along with understanding of their ecological, socioeconomic and cultural dimensions. Here we assess the consequences, both for ecosystems and local livelihoods, of the loss of these important resources and propose alternative management options.
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CIFOR experts share their insight on current publications and ongoing issues in forests and landscape research. Many of these talks are filmed during CIFOR's Science@10 sessions, which take place weekly at CIFOR's headquarters in Bogor, Indonesia.

The Amazon rainforest hosts some of the richest biodiversity in the world; stores vast amounts of carbon; and regulates the climate and rainfall over a vast area. But it's also home to more than 30 million people in nine South American countries, many of whom rely on the forest for their livelihoods. CIFOR's research in the region aims to shed light on how the forests can be used in more sustainable ways -- while improving the lives of their poorest inhabitants.

In Brazil's far west, the state of Acre -- made famous by the rubber tapper social movement and the murder of its leader Chico Mendes -- is now trying to prove that it is possible to safeguard the Amazon -- and improve the lives of rural people at the same time.

ECUADOR: Smallholders, logging and the law

In the Ecuadorian Amazon, CIFOR researchers have been examining the country's thriving domestic timber market, trying to understand how smallholders and chainsaw millers relate it, and the links to the international timber trade. They're also looking at women's roles in timber harvesting. And their results aren't just published in journals, but shared with the communities where the research was done.

PERU: Balancing Brazil nuts and timber

In Madre de Dios in Peru, CIFOR scientists are tackling a controversial question. They are working alongside local university students to try to determine the impact selective logging is having on nut production in Brazil nut concessions.

BRAZIL: Tackling deforestation

Brazil has dramatically reduced the deforestation rate in the Amazon over the past decade. How did they do it? Can they sustain it? Can this success be replicated by other countries? And have the costs been borne by Brazil's other forest ecosystem, the Cerrado?